What is the Shape of Our Universe, and where is it
situated? I would also like to know what is there
outside the Universe?

Question Date: 2014-09-23

Answer 1:

The universe doesn't really have a shape, nor is
there an outside, to the best of our knowledge.

According to the big bang theory, which is the
best theory we currently have and is supported by
the most data, the universe expanded out of a
zero-volume and infinite-density state about
fourteen billion years ago. The expansion,
however, was not expansion into formerly empty
space. Rather, space itself is expanding, and
drove the particles that the universe contains
apart.

A good analogy would be to think about balls of
fuzz on the surface of a balloon: blow up the
balloon, the balls of fuzz do not get bigger, but
the balloon does, so the fuzz gets farther apart.
The same thing seems to be happening to our
universe with the fuzz being galaxies, except that
the universe is expanding in three dimensions,
instead of just two. As far as we know, the
universe has no edge; it continues in all
directions forever.

Now, the part of the universe that we can see
does have an edge, which is caused by the finite
speed of light - we can't see anything farther
than fourteen billion light years away because
that is all of the time that light has had to
travel. That volume, of course, is a sphere, but
outside of that is more universe.

Answer 2:

The simple answer is nobody knows what is outside
of the universe. The more correct answer is that
the question itself makes no sense. This doesn't
mean it's a bad question, it's just a question
that can't possibly have an answer (as far as we
know). It's the same thing as asking "What's north
of the North Pole?" Everything that we know exists
is the universe, it is the fabric of existence
itself. You couldn't go outside of the universe
because time and space are properties of the
universe. So there is no such thing as "location"
outside of the universe. In the same way, you
can't look at the universe from the outside, and
see what shape it is. Space around us appears to
be a sphere, but, that's a limitation of the fact
that we can only see a certain distance away. Some
people make guesses about how other universes
could form outside of ours, but, since these
guesses can't be tested by evidence, it isn't
actually science just guesswork. There is a lot
left to learn about the universe.

Answer 3:

This does not answer your question, but here is a
great video on how the known universe is organized
and where we are in it! I hope you find it
interesting!